Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) exploration sector delivered strong results throughout 2025, with multiple operators reporting high-grade discoveries and advancing drilling programs across the country.
From the highlands to island projects, explorers uncovered significant gold, copper, and silver mineralisations, expanded known resources, and progressed toward production timelines.
The year saw both established operators and emerging companies push forward with ambitious drilling campaigns and technological advances that promise to expand the nation’s mineral endowment.
The 50-50 joint venture between East Vision Investment Holdings and Adyton Resources at the Wapolu Gold Project on Fergusson Island completed 8,000m of drilling, land ownership mapping, and baseline environmental work in 2025, targeting first production in the second half of 2026. The joint venture is advancing metallurgical test work and finalizing process plant design for the historic Wapolu site.
Geopacific Resources is advancing its 1.67 million ounce Woodlark project toward a definitive feasibility study targeted for the first quarter of 2026, extended from the original late-2025 timeline to incorporate value-enhancing optimisations. Surface auger sampling at Little MacKenzie and Wayai Creek returned peak assays of 63.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 20 g/t gold, with trenching and a 30,000m drilling campaign planned.
South Pacific Metals commenced maiden drilling at Ontenu NE in November 2025, planning four to six holes for approximately 1,500m to test mineralised structures at its Osena Project. Earlier rock chip sampling returned grades up to 13.9 g/t gold and 388 g/t silver, extending known mineralisation zones. The company also reported assays of 9.34 g/t gold and 272 g/t silver from newly discovered structures, with at least six mineralised structures now mapped.
Additional surface sampling revealed up to 10.3 per cent copper and 1.7 g/t gold, with the company acquiring a man-portable diamond drill to accelerate exploration across its four PNG projects.
LCL Resources completed its first field campaign at the Puma prospect within its Ubei Project in Western Province, with rock chip samples returning grades of 7.95 g/t gold, 0.51 per cent copper, and 31 g/t silver. The 21-day program included trenching and confirmed historical data, with structural mapping validating surface mineralisation above IP chargeability anomalies.
The company also announced an inferred mineral resource of 18.3 million tonnes at its Ono Gold Project, located 150km from the Port of Lae. LCL is investing in three-dimensional induced polarity surveys to target mineralisation at depth in the Lower Limestone unit and to define margins of the Kusi intrusive body.
St Barbara conducted a regional exploration program on Tatau Island between September 2024 and April 2025, uncovering gold-in-soil anomalies across 7.3 square km comparable to known anomalies on Simberi Island. Rock chip sampling at Mt Siro-Seraror returned assays up to 22.5 parts per million gold, supporting the presence of a large hydrothermal system. Further trenching and RC drilling results are expected in the first quarter of 2026.
St Barbara also identified additional sulphide and gold mineralisation at its ongoing Simberi operations on both the Samat and Sorowar-Pigiput Trend deposits. Its drilling revealed grades of up to 6.4 g/t gold immediately below the current Samat open pit. The company also announced a new oxide discovery between the Pigibo North and Southwest Sorowar pits, with intercepts up to 2.1 g/t gold at 25m, and grade control drilling further testing the zone.
Great Pacific Gold achieved multiple high-grade hits at its Wild Dog Project in East New Britain, with hole WDG-08 intersecting 8.4m at 46.5 g/t gold from 154m, including a 0.8m section grading 322 g/t gold. The maiden drilling program returned 7m at 10.3 g/t gold equivalent from 6m in hole WDG-02. The company mobilized a second drill rig in November 2025 to accelerate the program at Sinivit and test the Magiabe porphyry target. Great Pacific Gold also completed a mobile magnetotelluric survey at its Kesar gold tenement with 100m line spacing, identifying multiple high-priority drill targets. Channel sampling in the East Vein zone returned 38m averaging 2.6 g/t gold, with drilling continuing through April 2025 and an airborne magnetics survey also conducted.
K92 Mining’s fifth set of drilling results from its Arakompa deposit revealed significant porphyry-style mineralisation, with one hole discovering 0.3% copper equivalent at 690.4m. The bulk tonnage zone is now defined over approximately 1,100m strike and to 800m vertical depth, extending previous measurements by 200m strike and 150m depth. The company plans to deploy two new diamond drill rigs by early 2026.
Tolu Minerals launched a $15 million exploration program at the Tolukuma gold zone, targeting more than 30,000m of drilling across the 10km corridor. Seven diamond drill rigs (five new, two existing) are being deployed both at the surface and underground through the 2025-2026 campaign, with surface mapping, trenching, and sampling underway from Mt Sen to Duma-Dilava.
Adyton Resources completed 1,876m across four diamond drill holes at its Feni Island project, targeting the Kabang and Matangkaka ore zones. Hole FDD004, drilled to 453.2m between the two zones, returned visible vein-hosted and disseminated sulphide mineralisation, with a porphyry-style alteration zone between 383.9m and 424m.
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